Methods and apparatus for searching the Internet

• US 8,745,025 B2
• Filed: 11/26/2012
• Issued: 06/03/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/08/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nuance Communications, Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Sejnoha, Vladimir, Evermann, Gunnar, Regan, Marc W., Laverty, Stephen W.
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, PHONG H
• Application Number:
  US13/685,059
• Publication Number:
  US 20130124495A1
• Time in Patent Office: 554 Days
• Field of Search: 707/706, 707/707, 707/759, 707/760, 707/767, 707/810
• US Class Current: 707/707
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/332 Query formulation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques

Abstract

Some embodiments relate to performing a search for content via the Internet, wherein user input specifying a search query is supplied to a mobile communications device, such as, for example, a smartphone. The mobile communications device separately issues the search query to a plurality of search engines and can receive the results from each search engine and display the results to the user. Thus, the user does not have to separately issue the query to each of the plurality of search engines.

Claims

1. A method, implemented at least in part via a server comprising at least one hardware computer processor, of facilitating a search for content via the Internet, the method comprising:

receiving a first search query from a client device;

identifying at least one search engine to be queried;

generating at least one second search query, wherein the at least one second search query is generated based, at least in part, on the content of the first search query, and wherein the at least one second search query comprises at least one formatted search query that is formatted for the at least one search engine; and

sending, to the client device, the at least one second search query, including the at least one formatted search query, and information specifying the identified at least one search engine to be used by the client device in performing an Internet search using the at least one second search query and the information specifying the identified at least one search engine;

wherein the first search query is in audio form, and wherein generating the at least one second search query further comprises generating the at least one second search query, at least in part, by performing speech recognition on the first search query using a first language model associated with the identified at least one search engine; and

wherein the identified at least one search engine is a site-specific search engine.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first search query is the same as the second search query.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying at least one search engine to be queried is based on explicit input in the first search query.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first search query has content, and wherein the identifying at least one search engine to be queried is based on the content of the first search query.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first language model was trained on content indexed by the site-specific search engine.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying the at least one search engine to be queried comprises identifying the at least one search engine from among a plurality of search engines, wherein the first language model is associated with at least one other of the plurality of search engines.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the at least one other search engine comprises a general-purpose search engine.

8. At least one non-transitory computer-readable medium encoded with instructions that, when executed by a server comprising at least one hardware computer processor, perform a method of facilitating a search for content via the Internet, the method comprising:

receiving a first search query from a client device;

identifying at least one search engine to be queried;

generating at least one second search query, wherein the at least one second search query is generated based, at least in part, on the content of the first search query, and wherein the at least one second search query comprises at least one formatted search query that is formatted for the at least one search engine; and

sending, to the client device, the at least one second search query, including the at least one formatted search query, and information specifying the identified at least one search engine to be used by the client device in performing an Internet search using the at least one second search query and the information specifying the identified at least one search engine;

wherein the first search query is in audio form, and wherein generating the at least one second search query further comprises generating the at least one second search query, at least in part, by performing speech recognition on the first search query using a first language model associated with the identified at least one search engine; and

wherein the identified at least one search engine is a site-specific search engine.

9. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the first search query is the same as the second search query.

10. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the first language model was trained on content indexed by the site-specific search engine.

11. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the identifying the at least one search engine to be queried comprises identifying the at least one search engine from among a plurality of search engines, wherein the first language model is associated with at least one other of the plurality of search engines.

12. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the at least one other search engine comprises a general-purpose search engine.

13. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the identifying the at least one search engine to be queried is based on the content of the first search query.

14. A server comprising:

at least one tangible memory that stores processor-executable instructions for facilitating a search for content via the Internet; and

at least one hardware computer processor, coupled to the at least one tangible memory, that executes the processor-executable instructions to;

receive a first search query from a client device;

identify at least one search engine to be queried;

generate at least one second search query, wherein the at least one second search query is generated based, at least in part, on the content of the first search query, and wherein the at least one second search query comprises at least one formatted search query that is formatted for the at least one search engine; and

send, to the client device, the at least one second search query, including the at least one formatted search query, and information specifying the identified at least one search engine to be used in performing an Internet search using the at least one second search query and the information specifying the identified at least one search engine;

wherein the first search query is in audio form, and wherein the at least one hardware computer processor generates the at least one second search query by generating the at least one second search query, at least in part, by performing speech recognition on the first search query using a first language model associated with the identified at least one search engine; and

wherein the identified at least one search engine is a site-specific search engine.

15. The server of claim 14, wherein the first search query is the same as the second search query.

16. The server of claim 14, wherein the first language model was trained on content indexed by the site-specific search engine.

17. The server of claim 14, wherein the at least one hardware computer processor, executes the processor-executable instructions to identify the at least one search engine to be queried from among a plurality of search engines, wherein the first language model is associated with at least one other of the plurality of search engines.

18. The server of claim 17, wherein the at least one other search engine comprises a general-purpose search engine.

19. The server of claim 14, wherein the at least one hardware computer processor, executes the processor-executable instructions to identify the at least one search engine to be queried based on the content of the first search query.